The Siren Myth
by Sakura Alexia
Summary: His wife was the same woman who ordered this, executed from the person he loved the most. Or so he believed, until he opened his eyes again and saw her, short blue hair that framed her perfectly shaped face, stormy gray eyes looking down on him, studying him, and a beautiful and infinitely long fish tail swaying lightly on the sand.


_Sounds of gunfire, pain, blood, the fall then the sea, and finally darkness. He believed to be soon to be done for, him, a respectable Marine that made the mistake of choosing glory over duty, that failed to keep his marriage with his wife together. His wife was the same woman who ordered this, executed from the person he loved the most._

 _Or so he believed, until he opened his eyes again and saw her, short blue hair that framed her perfectly shaped face, stormy gray eyes looking down on him, studying him, and a beautiful and infinitely long fish tail swaying lightly on the sand._

"What the-" Axton jumped as a bucket of ice cold water was not so gently dumped on him, courtesy of the young engineer, or mechromancer as she liked to be called, Gaige.

"You were sleeping on deck, again" she simply replies. "Don't tell me you were dreaming of _her_ again" putting quite some emphasis on the word "her", the soldier knew that the others didn't believe him at all when he told them how he managed to save himself after being shot down by his old squad, or rather who saved him.

No one believed that a siren saved his life, or that sirens existed in the first place, but something told him it wasn't a dream, she just looked so real, right there, near him, yet not, and when he tried touching her she just pulled away, scared, and returned back the way she came, from the ocean.

"I tell you she's real, I'm alive because of her" Axton snaps "She wasn't a dream"

"Whatever, I still think you were delirious" she retaliates.

That was exactly what everyone thought about it, that he was going crazy because of the near-death experience he had endured and saw things that weren't supposed to be there.

Not much time later he met this other soldier, Roland, he had left the Crimson Lance to search for the so called vaults by himself, built his own crew and sailed wherever he desired along with his friends, who shared the same ambitions and desired glory, and glory was exactly what Axton desired too. He was now a pirate instead of a Marine, a Crimson Raider.

"I was not-" He was about to respond but was cut off by Roland himself, who informed them that an enemy ship was near, they had to prepare to attack.

Axton joined Salvador and Brick with arming the cannons, he wasn't as brawny as then but still he was more suited than the rest of them to help, the others were all so skinny.

Lilith steered the ship in the direction the other one was, bringing it close enough to be attacked.

"Take everything they have, make no prisoners" Roland tells the crew right before jumping on the other ship, the crew following him.

The fight lasted no more than a few minutes, most enemy crews weren't as strong as them, usually they were no more than a mere bunch of bandits that wanted to become pirates because they were bored or felt like it, not for serious motives. Axton guessed that this was the main reason of the difference between the others and themselves.

"Check everywhere for anything useful, you know how it is" Roland says, he knew his crew understood as they split up.

Axton checked below deck, before him just bars and chains, this must have been where this crew kept their prisoners, nothing interesting, or so he thought. The faint clink of a chain made its way in his ears, he heard coughing right after, someone was here.

On the ground he could see a trail of blood as he progressed in his search, following it he saw what he wouldn't ever expect to see on a ship. Those blue hair of hers, but most importantly her glorious tail.

"It's you…" he whispered, she opened her grey eyes as she heard him, she also opened her mouth to speak but all she ended up with was a harsh cough, blood seeping out from her blue lips.

Axton had been so lost in his admiration that he didn't notice the state the siren was currently in. She was lying on the wooden floor in a pool of blood that couldn't be no one else's but hers, she had several cuts all over her tail, from the looks of it these people teared away her scales for some reason, probably to sell them, even her large fin was cut open in a few spots, and probably, the item that was used to remove the scales was the exact same dagger that was still lodged in her stomach.

Another of her fits broke him out of his thoughts as he scrambled to look for the key of her cell and her chains. "I'll get you out of there, just hang on a bit more" he says as he frantically looks for the damned keys. He finds them under a broken piece of a plank.

Axton quickly unlocks the door of her cell and crouches down beside the siren, glaring at the dagger. "We need to take this out" he tells her, only receiving a nod in response.

He grasps the handle and looks up at her again, he gets another pained nod, in a single swift motion her takes the offending weapon out, wincing as he hears her scream, her blood spilling out on the floor and himself too this time.

"Sorry…" he apologizes, she says nothing but he can see gratefulness in her grey eyes, oh they were so beautiful!

The soldier proceeded by freeing her of the chains that limited her movements the took her in his arms, her skin was smooth against his and her tail didn't feel as slippery like a fish's one as he thought, it was rough and sticky with blood.

To his surprise she didn't pull away from him this time, instead she curled up against him further, grasping his jacket with her long, webbed fingers. She was looking for some sort of comforting warmth he assumed.

With the siren now in his arms Axton quickly made his way back to the ship where the others were waiting, he silently wondered how the others would react when they will see the divine creature that was curled up in his arms, he couldn't wait to show her to them and prove that he wasn't crazy like everyone else thought.

"Axton where were you?" Lilith marched over to him "We've been waiting for-" she interrupted herself as soon as her eyes laid on what he carried. "What the heck!? Is this thing real?" she kept staring at the siren, her yellow eyes wide.

"Yes, she is and if we don't give her medical treatment now she's gonna die" he says flatly, he could feel the creature in his arms straining with each breath she took, he doubted she would last much longer without help.

"Oh yeah right" the redhead shook herself out of her trance and run up to the side of the enemy ship, and swiftly jumped down on theirs. "Roland prepare the medical bay, there's someone who needs treatment now"

The soldier just nodded and went to prepare the instruments needed to assist said person, instructing Zero to follow him as well.

As soon as he was back on the ship Axton wasted no time taking the injured siren to their infirmary making his way between the questions and confusion of his friends.

"Hang on a bit more, my friends will take care of you" he whispered softly to the siren as he laid her down on the bed Zero prepared for her, but the lack of movement from her told Axton that her consciousness was far gone.

Roland moved closer to the siren to inspect her, his eyes told Axton that he too was curious about her, same thing for Zero as his mask projected a surprised emoticon, but they both knew that they should save all the questions for later.

"We'll do our best" the older soldier put a hand on Axton's shoulder, gently pushing him to the door he just came in, taking the hint the blond man left them alone, they wanted no distraction when the life of someone was at stake.

* * *

Axton paced back and forth on deck, waiting for someone to emerge from it and say something, it had been an awful long time since he left the wounded siren in the hands of Roland and Zero, an hour passed, or maybe two or even more, he couldn't tell anymore and the constant questions of the rest of the crew, which he still answered, didn't help pass the time either, or ease his worry, what if she didn't make it? What if he had been too late? He ruffled his hair in frustration.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity Zero emerged from the infirmary, his hands bloody from what the soldier guessed to be the siren's own one. Before he could speak Zero cut him off.

"She lost a lot of blood/ She's stable now/ But needs rest" the assassin spoke and Axton sighed in relief.

"We patched up her wounds the best of our abilities, but we aren't sure how to treat her tail properly, several cuts were teared in it and a large number of scales are missing, we're not sure if they will grow up again" Roland explains as he exits the sick bay as well "As for the wound on her stomach I'm happy to say that the weapon she was stabbed with didn't harm anything vital, it just caused her to lose much blood" he then turns to Axton. "She would have died of blood loss if you didn't find her in time"

The young soldier just gave Roland a small smile, feeling oddly proud and absolutely at peace with himself now. "I'm glad I did" he replies "It would have been terrible if I didn't manage to save her like she did with me almost an year ago"

"Wait wait wait, it was her that saved you? The exact same siren?" Gaige asked in disbelief.

"Wow, yours is pure luck amigo" Mordecai spoke up while helping himself with some rakk ale and petting Bloodwing with his free hand as well.

"Yeah man, what are the odds of finding a siren? And even more meeting the exact same one again too!" the young engineer continued.

"From what you've always been telling me you didn't even believe me when I said sirens existed" Axton snorted "But anyway I would have liked to see her again safe and sound, swimming through the waves of the ocean, not like this"

"Still you found her, again" Lilith said "Lucky son of a bitch" he heard her mutter.

The soldier ignored her and headed to the infirmary, he wanted to stay near the siren until she regained consciousness, just like she did with him. And there she was, lying on the bed curled up on her side covered in the heavy blankets, her bright blue fin poking out of them. He sat down on the nearby chair, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath she took, her stormy grey eyes closed and her blue hair covering her face. She looked peaceful.

* * *

Several more hours passed before the siren's eyes opened once more, she found herself laying on something soft and white covered by some sort of cloth, also white, she tried to sit up but a stinging pain from her abdomen forced her down once more, she remembered being hurt by some humans, she believed them to be humans at least, their faces were covered but they didn't have a tail like her.

She was just sitting peacefully on a rock staring at the sky, when these people came out of nowhere and caught her in what she assumed to be a net, they pulled her up to their ship and brought her somewhere, tying her up with some sort of metallic rope despite all her struggles.

They kept her there in the dark, away from her ocean, she remembered them cutting her tail with some sharp objects she had never seen before, they teared away her scales one after another, hurting her, carelessly spilling her blood, as she hopelessly cried and screamed, begging them to stop.

She had tried to pull away from them but with each passing day it was becoming harder and harder, the lack of hydration had made her tail dry up, making it numb to the point that she couldn't move it anymore, leaving it at the complete mercy of those men. The loss of blood didn't help either, it made her weaker and weaker until she had no more energy to resist or even speak.

The last thing she remembered was someone driving one of those sharp objects into her stomach and a searing pain, then a loud noise and someone talking to her and taking her somewhere, then nothing else.

Her grey eyes scanned the room, noticing that someone was there, sitting on some odd thing, he was hunched forward and his eyes were closed, he was sleeping, she tilted her head, he looked familiar. Feeling curious she extended her arm and poked his cheek with a finger waiting for a reaction, seeing none she poked again, harder.

Axton opened his eyes and snorted irritably, wondering who the hell woke him up, again, but is anger quickly faded when he saw who it was, he smiled widely.

"You're awake!" he said with joy, immediately opening his arms to try to hug her but she pulled away as soon as he got closer.

"Sorry, I was happy to see you're okay" Axton tells her scratching the back of head sheepishly, the siren gave him a puzzled look.

"Where am I?" she asked, her voice coming out with much strain.

"You're on a ship" he answers her, taking a glass and filling it with water and offering to her, she took it in her hands and observed it but nothing else, unsure of what she was supposed to do with it. Noticing her confusion Axton took the glass back from her.

"Sit up the best you can and part your lips slightly" he tells her, he never thought he would be sitting here teaching a siren how to drink from a glass in his entire life. The siren followed his instructions and he carefully placed the glass near her lips, the cool liquid sliding down her throat easily as she greedily took it.

"Thank you" she said, her voice clearer now, Axton nodded.

"To answer your previous question you're on a ship lead by the Crimson Raiders, we're pirates and my name in Axton, I found you on another ship of bandits we were raiding and I brought you here, my friends treated your wounds" the siren nodded, he could see confusion on her face, probably she didn't understood everything he said as she didn't live on land, but something told him she understood she wasn't in trouble anymore.

"You look familiar, Axton" she gave him another puzzled look, looking at him up and down.

"Well maybe because you saved me from drowning some time ago" he openly says.

"Oh…" she says in surprise "So you're that human I saw that fell from his ship and that I brought back on land" she reasons "Never thought I would see you again"

"Me neither" he chuckles "Why did you help me back then?"

"I saw you were hurt, I thought I had to do something" she says flatly "I had never seen a human that close before either, you intrigued me"

"I could say the same to you" he retaliates "But anyway I guess we're even now, I'm glad I made it in time, my friends told me that if I didn't find you in time you would have died" he says softly.

"I suppose so" she calmly answers, he wondered how she managed to do so.

"So uhm… how do we deal with you now? I mean you're obviously still weak from all of this, and we have no idea how to treat your tail properly either and-" she interrupts him holding a webbed hand in front of his face.

"Just throw me back in the ocean, my tail is all dried up and I can't move it for the lack of hydration, so please just let me return where I belong"

"Are you sure?" Axton asks in concern and she nods.

"I understand your worry by the ocean is my home, I depend from it, just let me go" she speaks these last words like a plead, she watched his eyes look on the ground, as if he has to accept something difficult. "Okay…" she hears him whispers, but something tells here he was all but okay with the whole thing.

He says nothing more, he just takes her in his arms and outside, she doesn't oppose this time, she sees other people but doesn't more. He sits her on the railing to the side of the ocean, he doesn't dump her in the water directly, hoping she would stay with him some more time at least, though he knows she can't. The other members of the crew join them but they say nothing.

She knows it's hard for him to see his savior once more and let her go like this, but she no longer can ignore the call of her beloved ocean, she must go. She turns to him and leaves a small kiss on his forehead as thank you, giving him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen before pushing herself forward, into the water, and disappearing beneath the waves once more.

* * *

Some more months pass before he sees her again, this time it's night and he's on watch, no one else is around, he sees her swim near the side of the ship and he goes to greet her, she greets him back with one of those smiles he so much loves.

He leans on one side of the railing while she, with her powerful tail shoots up high enough to hoist herself up and lean on the other side, he can see that she healed and her scales grew up again. Then without him saying anything she answers the only question that has been pressing him for the past few months, the same question the others have been mocking him for forgetting to ask her.

"Maya, my name is Maya" she says as she leans closer, her lips meeting his in a kiss, before disappearing once more as quick as she came, leaving Axton to wonder when their next would be with a smile on his face.


End file.
